Sunday, May 11, Plus What's Up Next

Hi again!

Thanks again to Dick Graves, Charlie Suhor, and Alice Brand for a warm and moving reunion last week! I will be posting transcripts of that and earlier calls in the coming weeks before the conference.

We are going to switch speakers in our call May 11. Svi Shapiro from the Network of Spiritual Progressives will be on. This is a movement--hold onto your seats--to bring wisdom to democratic politics. Most of our speakers--Matthew Fox, Michael Nagler, Riane Eisler, and Robert Inchausti--as well as several participants and I myself have been involved in it. You can find out more from tikkun.org.

The procedure is simply to dial 218-936-6666, follow the prompts, and then enter the code 9936250#.

The following week (May 18) will feature speakers from international movements for wisdom education, including this week's scheduled speakers--more to follow.

The weekend before the conference is Memorial day. I thought it might be best to have the call in the morning, and just to debrief about the calls in general before the actual conference later in the week. We can talk about that tomorrow and the next week and see what you'd like.

We hope to have the full schedule out soon--there's been a lot of bureaucracy to deal with recently that has kept us from finalizing it. Let me put a few things on the table for you:

1) We have a number of students and others who need help coming to the conference. Two people have already made donations that are covering several hundred dollars to fund scholarships and one is a $300 matching grant. If you would like to make a tax-deductible donation to AEPL (a 401c3 through our sponsoring organization, the National Council of Teachers of English), please write to me and say how much you are willing to pledge. This will help greatly, not just these individuals, but all of us, in helping to make our conference more diverse.

2) We are able to accommodate all of you in the main conference lodge--with not a single room to spare. We do also have access to four cabins that are more isolated, but a bit more primitive, if any of you would prefer to be more by yourselves. Here is their description: (Heat and electricity in rooms, no water. Sinks, separate compost privies and shower in buildings nearby, standard bathrooms in nearby buildings.) If you'd like to move to one of the cabins, let me know, preferably by Tuesday, as I need to submit our housing list the next day.

3) If any of you who are presenting have books that you would like to sell, you may either bring them to the conference, or have us order them for you. Get your order to me by Wednesday if you'd like us to order them for you. We are ordering through Barnes and Noble and returning what does not sell to the B & N store in San Jose, so there will be no losses on them.

All for now! I'm looking forward to winding down my bureaucratic role very soon and simply enjoying you and the conference! See you very soon!

Yours,

Bruce